Scratch
Scratch is a badnik chicken created by Dr. Robotnik as an adversary of Sonic the Hedgehog. Along with his counterpart Grounder, he is the leader of Robotnik's Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad. They are Robotnik's main henchmen, and two of the main antagonists of the series Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. Scratch has also appeared in the Archie Comics continuity. ''Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog'' Scratch and Grounder are largely comic relief characters, and though charged with the capture of Sonic and his friend Tails, they almost always fail. Not only this, but the two are also highly gullible, easily being deceived by Sonic no matter how bizarre his disguises. These repeated failures frequently result in the two hapless robots receiving a lot of abuse (both verbal and physical) from Dr. Robotnik. Scratch was originally created by Robotnik to be a super-robot that could easily catch Sonic for him, since all of his other mechanical bounty hunters fail. But unfortunately, the machine malfunctioned and spawned Scratch, a product almost exactly the opposite of what Robotnik wanted. Grounder is a sort of "clone" of Scratch with different abilities and body structure. While being created by Robotnik in the cartoon, Scratch has one of his tail feathers plucked and put into a cloning machine, but Scratch pulled an extra lever that caused, as Robotnik put it, some "slight modifications". The two were occasionally aided by a robotic monkey named Coconuts (also based on an enemy from Sonic the Hedgehog 2), although most of the time, he would be competing with them rather than helping them, in hopes of being promoted out of janitor status. Physical appearance Scratch resembles a tall, lanky, roughly humanoid rooster or chicken with white feathers, scaled feet, wing-like arms, silver body armor, black collar and belt, a red rooster comb on top of his head, a red two-feathered tail, and a yellow beak and legs, similar to Cluckoids or Clucker (named コケッコー "Kokekko" in Japan), one of the enemy Badniks in the Wing Fortress Zone of Sonic 2. He is distinctified by his prominent cockadoodle-like laugh, "Ba-ha! Ha-ha!". Scratch seems to be the leader of the badniks, has a IQ of 40, and is marginally smarter than Grounder, making up for his lack of Grounder's assorted gadgets. Abilities Scratch does not have much in the way of abilities. Like a real rooster/chicken, Scratch is capable of pecking foes, with the pecking more reminiscent of a woodpecker. He also seems to have a telescopic neck which can extend and retract - his head often retracts into his torso to protect himself. He is also said to be the smartest of the badniks, but that isn't saying much considering how stupid they all are. Like his counterpart Grounder, Scratch is amazingly stupid and fails at almost everything he does. One example of Scratch's stupidity is in the "Attack on Pinball Fortress" episode. Scratch accidentally gets zapped by Dr. Robotnik's Stupidity Ray, but Scratch does not change because he is already so stupid that he cannot be made any more stupid. However, also like Grounder, he is quite persistent and fairly durable - whenever either of them get damaged or blown to bits (which is very often), they can be repaired very easily and always come back for more. Robotnik himself wondered in one episode why he bothers to constantly repair them despite how much they fail. In the episode "Trail of the Missing Tails", Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts are temporarily transformed into giant monster versions of themselves. Scratch looks more like an ordinary chicken in this state, almost resembling Cluck, the mechanical chicken pet of Robotnik in the "SatAM" animated series. In this state, the robots are much bigger and stronger than normal, but it is unknown if they have any further new abilities. Other appearances Games ''Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts all appeared as opponents in the game ''Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, which was based around the AoSTH show. Scratch and Grounder were also in the game's cut scenes along side Dr. Robotnik. ''Sonic Spinball Scratch appeared in the third bonus stage of ''Sonic Spinball. In this bonus, a number of identical Scratches circle around a large Egg Capsule. Sonic must use his pinball skills to kill all the Scratches and then destroy the capsule to free Flicky, Wocky and the Freedom Fighters from the SatAM cartoon series. Scratch makes the same clucking sound as Cluck and Clucker. Archie Comics Scratch and Grounder also appeared in the earliest issues of the Sonic comic book published by Archie Comics. However, the characters themselves were prominently featured only in their first appearance there, published in issue #2. Subsequent appearances of the two were minor; their last appearance in the comic was part of a flashback in issue #57. However, Scratch appears in issue 4 (Tails' Little Tale) without Grounder and Grounder appears (without Scratch) in the story "Sonic Spin City!", published in Sonic Super Special #15. Recently in issue #187 Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts have all returned, now as employees of Mammoth Mogul who has taken over Casino night zone and employed the old badniks as workers. Category:Male Category:Sonic character Category:Villains Category:Artificial Intelligence Category:Dimwits